{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: San Juan River, New Mexico

One thing about the San Juan...it has FISH.  My friends and I meet there every year and are never  disappointed.  Its not a wilderness experience, but its a great place to fly fish.  The fish are feeding throughout  the water column and it is great fun figuring out what they are eating and then getting it to them properly.  We stay at Abe's, totally basic, but suitable.  I've had the best dry fly fishing for large fish with tiny (#26 midge dries) ever.  The BWO fishing in the fall can be spectacular, too, and we are talking big fish.  The Four Corners, where the SJ runs, is also  neat country (despite the energy development).  In the last two years New Mexico Fish and Game has launched a series of stream improvement projects which have really helped the river.  Last time I was there, some folks were catching nearly 100 trout out  of two or three spots created by the habitat work.

On Wednesday, February 6, 2013 10:22:14 AM UTC-5, Brad wrote:

So I went to New Mexico for a hog hunt with some old friends. We found no hogs and it became a drinking and shooting fest. But because we weren't finding hogs, all my AZ friends decided to go back a day early. Since I had a day to kill, I drove up to Navajo Dam and did a float on Monday. Epic day of fishing. Truly epic. Numbers of fish and size of fish. Because this area is in the middle of a multi-year drought, Colorado had nowhere to put their hatchery fish this year and most ended up in the San Juan - hundreds of thousands of fish from 6" to 14" I told my guide I was interested in catching big fish, so we only had to wade through 2 dozen or so pee-wees as he called them. The pee-wees on this river were 12"-14". 

Flows were low, the air temp was in the low 30's and the water was off color. We started throwing big meat flies, but only got a couple of flashes. The rest of the day we fished a leech fly, white ended up being the best color, with a size 22 midge fly, orange was the color of the day, underneath it. Takes were unbelievably subtle, even for the big fish. If the indicator did anything funny, you set the hook (hook sets are free). The biggest fish below barely moved the indicator.

Besides the pee-wees, we caught probably 30 "average" San Juan fish. These were all 16" plus. Here is a picture of a smaller "average" fish. He took the leech.

Here is my personal best rainbow, outside of AK. He took the midge. I broke off 3 more this size and had a brown about this size break off right at the boat. Sorry for the terrible picture.

If you ever get the chance, fish the San Juan!

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